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Quiet Quitting

ombuds.web.cern.ch

201–210 of 224 posts

Re: Quiet Quitting

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Work from home is now widespread. Yeah because you don't have an office anymore. If I could have a job with a private office where I could close the door, have peace and quiet, and open the window as I wished, and I had a manager who simply gave me tasks to solve, like our parents had, I would also never quit and work there for 35 years. The working environment and conditions today are terrible in comparison, and p…

I always liked going to the office to hang out (as a 35ish year old) but I would go home if I wanted to get something done. When afternoon hit the office was always too noisy. This was a typical cubicle office environment.

Noise cancelling headphones are a game changer.

I got a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5's and they're like magic. Lightweight, incredibly comfortable, and the active noise canceling is like getting transported into another reality.

It's the first pair of headphones I've been able to wear for a full 10-hour flight and never feel uncomfortable.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW: I taught high school English for about ten years. In addition to my regular 40 hrs, I routinely prepped, marked up writing, etc for an additional 15-20 hours per week. I left in June and took a new job at a small tech consultancy here in Minneapolis. Teaching is a special job in many ways, but the material benefits of exiting education are stark (at least for me).

The students are required to work for hours more per week, why not the teachers?

Students are the ones benefiting from their own work AND the work of the teacher.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#203
post #72

Can someone please explain to me how you work 200%? Does this mean that a person claiming this worked 16 hours days, and then in order to eat, skipped two hours of sleep time, so typically would only get 6 hours of sleep, and no other time off during the week? Or, that they decided not to see children (who need 10-12 hours of sleep a day, so that would clearly make it impossible to see them if you are not occupied by…

Some people definitely do work 200% longer and harder than a regular employee who is conscientious about their work. Working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and not letting off the gas, really putting your energy into it. The author works at CERN, so maybe they are that passionate and feel fulfilled by the work. Most people who do that are being exploited.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always liked going to the office to hang out (as a 35ish year old) but I would go home if I wanted to get something done. When afternoon hit the office was always too noisy. This was a typical cubicle office environment.

Noise cancelling headphones are a game changer. I got a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5's and they're like magic. Lightweight, incredibly comfortable, and the active noise canceling is like getting transported into another reality. It's the first pair of headphones I've been able to wear for a full 10-hour flight and never feel uncomfortable.

The office is handy to confer with others when necessary, but you waste a lot of time just getting there and back. So much easier and less stressful to grab coffee in your boxers and just get on the computer at home. I realize some people need the brownian bounce of personalities, but a lot of people just don’t and managers and execs need to realize this, especially for work that is not people-facing.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#205
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if they're experiencing mental health issues? Many can take years to resolve and some never will. Tying private health care to employment really creates some odd situations.

> What if they're experiencing mental health issues? The people I know that do this use the time and money for a full time vacation as they travel the world. I am not sure public or private healthcare should fund people's (mental health) vacations.

Well, a vacation probably isn't hurting their mental health. I assume it's short term disability insurance that's picking up that bill. I wonder who actually ends up working more days - a French worker who gets all kinds of leave by law, or an American who maxes out their private insurance benefits? I really couldn't say, but I just can't get all that angry at a worker getting the benefit here.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because we all know it 100% exists. I don't know that.

So is all advancement based on nepotism/favoritism? No skill or talent? It 100% doesn't exist in the government/public sector, that's an absolute fact.

I don't consider skills of networking and promotion to count as 'merit', and that's at least as important as technical skill.

Also I was an employee of the federal government for several years, and at least at the general service level promotions were as close to merit-based as I've seen anywhere.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#207
post #111

I finally 'quiet quit' when I realized being a minority in tech means I'll never break the glass ceiling past senior engineer regardless of how hard I work or how visibly I help. Even in school I was shoved into secretarial work until I finally convinced professors to let me work solo and would smoke entire groups. People for some reason think I am good enough to interview for lead or architect then seem surprised wh…

I think you probably have some fundamental cause & effect arrows backwards here. Specifically, every single tech recruiter and tech executive is doing everything they can to increase the diversity of their company. The fact that you're getting interviews for lead or architect but then being assessed as a better fit for senior shows that you're actually getting preferential treatment in recruiting stage and opportunit…

> That's a sign that your resume looks good, but you interview poorly.

Yeah, exactly. If you're 'leaking' at one point, that's what you should focus on.

I just don't think there is much more I can do without feeling I am being fake. I could _probably_ take ADHD meds and zone out a bit but certainly isn't great.

I don't ever disclose any of this even to current employers. I don't think I come across as "talented jerk", I think I come across as probably more of a pushover than I actually am so that I don't veer into people thinking I am a "stuck up bitch" (to be quite blunt about my concern).

I will consider other factors I can tweak that may give a better impression, but I do think I come across more as "eccentric fast talker who lives tech" than "buttoned up white collar" and that may be part of the problem; that I am trying the wrong kind of 'puzzle' and there is a company out there that does want my type.

> But it might be more likely that if many different groups of people have all been interested in you on paper but then you didn't meet expectations

This is likely what it is to be quite honest. It's that constant issue of "need experience to get experience". No one is willing to take a 'risk' on me being a principal or architect because I don't have on paper experience on that title despite doing that level of work.

I have all the hallmarks: mentorship, well-written documentation, talks, open source work. The only really left to consider is:

1) I come across as insane, people see that, I don't, and they choose not to involve themselves.

2) They have pre-conceived notions of what someone of that 'tier' looks / acts / sounds like.

I do understand that at that tier there is a concrete expectation of external communication but the weird part is I already do that anyway.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#208

This article is very ironic: it is written by the CERN's Ombud, who has a lifetime employment contract like all of CERN's management, and probably obtained it at a time when CERN was printing them like hot cakes. Today's reality is much different: the chances of obtaining this contract are very low and mostly depend on older colleagues retiring, otherwise you are limited to a 5 year staff contract. The disconnect bet…

She was apparently very hurt by the negative response to this article.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up until a few years ago IC was a rare thing to effectively advance your income. ICs were seen ad just ants that are useless without a manager. As for "cesspool that is California" - SV provides the highest income opportunities, even if you include low raise opportunities.

and Highest Cost of living, I would need to increase my income 250% or more to maintain the same living as I do where i am today if I lived in San Fransisco. From what I see, that would be about 80-140% higher than most non-Senior SV Jobs our there. Meaning my standard of living would drastically decrease even though my income would likely go up by 100%. Example, I own a 3 bedroom home, on 3/4 acre lot with a 15 year…

If the value of living in Bay Area was that low, you'd have a drastic decrease of rental prices. The same is with NYC - rents are considerably higher than pre-pandemic.

Calling California a "cesspool" is at best personal opinion.

Re: Quiet Quitting

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the... No. If your company has to rely on people working extra hours and doing extra work, to actually function... then screw that company. Imagine if you demanded your carpenter do your plumbing as well, because "as house can't operate without proper plumbing".

We don't demand that. But (for a small one-off home installation job) we do expect carpenters to finish with a broom-clean workspace, even if that's not explicitly in the contract. It's a basic professional standard and "common sense." That's the sort of thing I'm talking about.

Except for some reason once people become employees, that "broom-clean workspace" turns into "spotless deep house clean" expectation.

Hence why you get "quitely quitting" as just doing the job you were hired to do.

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